


Death

by Lazuliblur



Series: Tobirama character studies [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29615349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazuliblur/pseuds/Lazuliblur
Summary: Tobirama dies a true ninja.
Series: Tobirama character studies [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175798
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Death

**Author's Note:**

> Revised and reposted from FFNet. :)  
> All feedback is welcome!
> 
> [Soundtrack: Apocalyptica – Path](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xqO9kKqyk)

Those with the greatest hearts were the most heartless. To be a ninja was to be death itself. 

Tobirama contemplated these simple truths as he sat in the woods, awaiting his end, senses split between the bright pinpricks of his students' receding chakras and the fast approaching swarm of enemy ninjas. Both were truths he had lived by and they had brought him up to this point. Up to where he would sacrifice his life to protect the future of his brother's village. 

His heart fluttered briefly against his ribcage, then settled. 

He rose to his feet and palmed his kunai. The enemy had arrived. 

He did not wait for them to strike first and trash talking had never been his style. Instead, he threw his weapons in a wide arc, scattering hiraishin markers across the battlefield. They allowed him to take out the first enemy wave with as little trouble as any battle permitted. 

He was methodical, clinical, flashing from place to place without ever staying long enough to see the blood fly. The dense forest prohibited large-scale techniques and that worked to his advantage. His movements were exact and precise, dealing out death with each strike. Contrary to what most thought, however, he had always struggled to embody the ideal of the true ninja: a single-minded killer of all that stood in his way, be they people, schemes or hearts — his own most of all. As much as he had hated his father, though, the man's lessons on how to endure killing himself piece by piece, over and over again every time he picked up a blade and slashed through the flesh of others, had been too well learned to be undone. 

Those rules had become a part of him and guided his footsteps throughout most of his life. They changed him from the boy who liked to lay down among the tall grass admiring flowers to the cold-blooded man whom everyone feared to cross. 

The second wave of enemies attacked as he was finishing up the first. The individual speed and skill of these ninjas may not have been a match for Tobirama's, but they made up for whatever they lacked with endless numbers. Having witnessed their teammates' demise, they knew to be more cautious of Konoha's Hokage and bided their time. Whenever Tobirama evaded a hit, someone else would be there, ready to charge, waiting for him to slip and fall into their hands. 

They shifted tactics, looking to exhaust rather than kill. Each small cut aimed to draw blood, pierce armour, sever muscle and tendon, vein and artery. Unlike the first wave's attacks, most of these landed. 

Tobirama was trapped. He watched the blood spill down his arms and coat his armour red. He started to calculate how much more he could withstand before succumbing to blood-loss, but gave up the effort as pointless. However long it was, it would be as long as he could extend it. 

His armour could not protect him anymore. It hung askew from one shoulder, exposing vital points to the enemy and getting in the way of his movement. The slashes covering his body were painful, some burning with poison. But, for the moment, that strap digging into his shoulder was what caused the most damage. 

Raising a kunai to his shoulder, he severed that last strap holding everything together. As its weight fell away, Tobirama was able to breathe freely. 

It was over. He was dead. There was no escape. 

The reality of his situation now crystallised, Tobirama found his thoughts drifting once more to the father he had hated so much in his youth. The subject of how a ninja should die had been another recurrent topic in his lessons. Tobirama had not cared to listen at the time, but every word of it was coming back to him now, as clear as if the man's ghost were whispering into his ear. 

To be a ninja was to be death itself. 

Tobirama roared. 

Startled by the sudden outburst, his enemies fell back. 

It was a mistake. 

The marked kunai were still spread over the battlefield and Tobirama was no longer playing the detached, heartless ninja. 

He was not human. 

He was animal. 

He was beast. 

He was a demon. 

He fought like he had never fought before, like a mad man, like spilling blood was breathing and killing was living, hacking away at everything he had been taught and breaking every rule he had held on to in his life. 

He grabbed an enemy's sword somewhere along the way and painted the forest in crimson shades, passion and fury incarnate. All the while, he thought of Konoha and of how it would be kept safe for another generation at least. 

Those with the greatest hearts were also the most heartless. 

He had been only too right before, though: he was already dead. The moment his strength betrayed him, at the briefest falter in his step, the enemy pounced. They may not have been as talented as Tobirama, but they were ninja and knew to seize an opportunity when it presented itself. Within a split second, four of them had sunk their swords into his chest. 

His weapon slipped from his grasp and blood flooded his lungs. Tobirama's last exhale brought with it more of the warm liquid than air. Grey clouds blurred his vision and a flicker of a smile curved his lips at the irony of how hard he had pushed himself in life to become a true ninja. 

Now, as he left it all behind, finally, he was heartless. 

Finally, he was death.


End file.
